Re: Goals for repo conversion day

[Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@gnu.org>]

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() "Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com>
() Sat, 25 Jan 2014 14:54:01 -0500

   That is true.  But beware of misleading analogies!  Archeologists
   like the seams mainly because stratigraphy helps them date things.

Repo contents is first order information.  Higher order is: What are
the structures that hold the repo contents (i.e., what is the VCS)?;
What are the factors in its choice?; Why are hackers so human?; ...

   This is a problem historians looking through a version-control
   repository won't have.

Right.  They will have this problem from the extra-repo references in
mailing list archives (public and private), bug tracker databases,
blogs, etc.  If you really want to help historians, the maps (and tools)
will be what they will thank you for the most, for the insight afforded.
(Insert Alan Perlis quote here.)

Historians might thank you, anyway, for an "antiseptic" repo, but
privately refer to an unsullied copy, for the Real Deal, a place where
Free and Hippocratic programs are composed and run (composably :-D).

-- 
Thien-Thi Nguyen
   GPG key: 4C807502
   (if you're human and you know it)
      read my lisp: (responsep (questions 'technical)
                               (not (via 'mailing-list)))
                     => nil

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